In December, the Sveriges Riksbank, the world's oldest central bank, has raised the main interest rate from -0.25 percent back to zero, ending its experiment with the negative interest rate policy, as the chart below shows. This is a huge change. As a reminder, Riksbank was a pioneer of negative interest rates. As early as in 2009, it moved the overnight deposit rate below zero. Then, in 2015, the Swedish central bank cut its main interest rate, the repo rate, to -0.10, worried about the repercussions of the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone. In 2016, Riksbank was forced to go further, setting the interest rates ... (full story)